Dominique Thomas gets up at the crack of dawn every morning to shower, get dressed and catch a city bus to San Bernardino High School.

Her rushed morning schedule doesn’t give the 18-year-old student, who is six months pregnant, time to fit in a breakfast.

To make sure she and other students get a nutritious start to their day, the high school began offering a program known as Grab and Go in recent weeks.

“It’s great knowing there is something I can get to eat for myself and the baby that I can just grab on the way to class,” she said.

The program was recently introduced to San Bernardino City Unified School District campuses by its nutrition services program, based on information that students who eat breakfast do better in school.

Principal Sandra Rodriguez and other campus leaders were receptive to the idea at the school where 87.7percent of students are in the free or reduced price meals program.

“We all recognize that in the current economy kids are not getting the nutrition they need at the start of the day,” said bilingual school outreach worker Jamie Rios. “It is something we feel is essential.”

On weekday mornings, students punch in a number for the meals program, then grab a bagged breakfast from food carts in the quad.

Fifty to 60 bags filled with food, including cereal bars, yogurt, fruit, juice and milk, are available every day.

So far, the new program has been a success, Rios said.

“On Wednesday, more than 40 bags were taken, showing that even the rain, cold and overcast skies did not stop students from participating,” he said.

Grab and Go is the newest feeding program at the school.

In recent years, it, along with other county schools, started offering the Kidz Fuel – Snack Pack program, after it was noticed that kids were picking up leftovers from lunch and putting the food in backpacks to take home for the weekend.

In the program, created by the Community Action Partnership of San Bernardino County, kids take home backpacks or grocery bags stuffed with enough ready-to-eat food to last them through the weekend. The backpack is then returned.

At San Bernardino High School, the food, including applesauce, bread, granola bars and cheese and crackers, is delivered at the end of the school day on Friday.

The San Bernardino County Food Bank also provides the school with 144 bags of food to distribute at 10 a.m. on the third Thursday of each month.

“Five years ago, we were giving away 24 bags. Now we are giving away 144, with people lining up as early as 7 a.m.,” Rios said. “It’s not like schools in the past. Now we do a lot more to meet the needs of our students and families.”